Columbia College Chicago

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago seal
Motto: Esse Quam Videri
(Latin for "To be, rather than to seem.")
Established: 1890
Type: Private
Endowment: $114 million
President: Warrick L. Carter
Faculty: 1,250
Students: 11,499
Undergraduates: 10,771
Postgraduates: 728
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Campus: Urban
Colors: Periwinkle, Gray, Black and White                    
Nickname: Renegades
Website: colum.edu
Columbia College Chicago Logo

Columbia College Chicago is the largest arts and communications college in the United States.[1] Founded in 1890, the school is located in the South Loop of Chicago. The most popular academic programs include Film and Video, Arts and Entertainment Management, Design, Journalism, and Photography. The college has performing arts programs including Theater, Dance, and Music. Columbia also specializes in disciplines such as American Sign Language, Fiction Writing, Poetry, Television and Radio. The college offers a complete liberal arts and sciences education by offering courses in math, science, social science, and history as well as several humanities.

Contents

[edit] Campus

Columbia has a nontraditional campus located in the South Loop of Chicago. Columbia's campus is composed of many buildings that were built in the early parts of the 20th century and were bought by the school as they expanded. Each building contains more than one academic department.

[edit] Alexandroff Campus Center

Located at 600 S. Michigan Avenue, Columbia College's Main Building was built in 1906-1907 by Christian A. Eckstorm, an architect popular for his industrial and warehouse designs, to serve as the headquarters of the International Harvester Company. 600 S. Michigan was a modern skyscraper of its era, built with a steel skeleton, high-speed elevators, electric light, the most advanced mechanical systems available and a floor plan designed to maximize natural light for all of its interior office spaces.The 15-story brick-clad building with classical stone detailing has an Art Deco lobby that retains much of its original marble. In 1937 the building was purchased by the Fairbanks-Morse Company, makers of railroad engines, farm equipment and hydraulic systems. It was acquired by Columbia College in 1974. In its early years as the home of Columbia, it was adaptively reused to house classrooms, the library, darkrooms, studios, and an auditorium. When the campus expanded through the acquisition of other buildings, especially after 1990, some of these functions, such as the greatly expanded library, were moved to other locations, and the spaces were again adapted for new uses. The building continues to serve as the administrative center of the college, and houses the Museum of Contemporary Photography on its first two floors, along with the 180-seat Ferguson Memorial Theater, photography darkrooms, two professional television studios, film/video editing facilities, and classrooms.

Alexandroff Campus Center
Alexandroff Campus Center

[edit] Congress Campus

The 33 East Congress Building was built in 1925-26 by noted Chicago architect, Alfred S. Alschuler, who designed the 1927 Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The seven-story brick and terra cotta “Congress-Wabash Building” was commissioned by Ferdinand W. Peck, Jr., a real estate developer, and initially housed a bank, offices, and recreation rooms that included dozens of pool tables. A national billiards championship was held here in 1938. By the 1940s, the building was known by the name of its major tenant, the Congress Bank. In the 1980s it became the home of MacCormac College. Columbia leased space in the building starting in 1997 and purchased the structure in 1999. It currently houses administrative offices, classroom space and the college’s radio station.

Congress Campus
Congress Campus

[edit] Wabash Campus Building

623 S. Wabash Avenue was built in 1895 by Solon S. Beman, architect of the industrial town of Pullman, one of the nineteenth century’s largest, most complex, and globally famous planned industrial communities for the Pullman Palace Car Company. The ten-story 623 S. Wabash building was originally built for the Studebaker Brothers Carriage Company of Fort Wayne, Indiana as its Chicago regional office and warehouse facility. It was later owned by the Brunswick Company, makers of wood furnishings and built-in furniture for libraries, universities and a variety of public commercial and governmental facilities. By the late 19th century Brunswick became specialists in designing such entertainment furnishings as bars, billiards tables, and bowling alleys for drinking establishments nationwide. Subsequent owners are unknown. The building was acquired by Columbia in 1983 and now houses classrooms, academic offices, a computerized newsroom, sciences laboratories, art studios, stage and costume design workshops and two public gallery spaces.

Wabash Campus Building
Wabash Campus Building

[edit] South Michigan Campus

624 S. Michigan Avenue was built by Eckstorm in 1908 as an eight story building to house the Chicago Musical College, a concern headed by Florenz Ziegfield Sr., father of Broadway Follies producer Flo Ziegfield, Jr. A seven-story addition was designed and built in 1922 by Alfred Alschuler. The building was renamed the Blum Building and housed the studios of a dance school and boutique women’s clothiers. Tenants in the building in the 1920s included Augustus Eugene Bournique’s dancing schools and two select women’s clothiers, Stanley Korshak’s Blackstone Shop and Blum’s Vogue. Brick clad with classical detailing, this 15-story building retains its stunning a marble and brass lobby. Columbia College acquired the building in 1990 and it now houses a five-story library, classrooms, departmental offices, student and faculty lounges and the college’s bookstore

[edit] 1104 Wabash Campus

1104 S. Wabash Avenue, built in 1891, is a City of Chicago Landmark (1996) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1980). Built by William LeBaron Jenney, acknowledged as the inventor of the skyscraper for his fire-proofed metal skeleton-frame designs, the Ludington building represents his continuing experimentation as the first entirely terra cotta-clad skyscraper. The Ludington is also a rare survivor, one of only two extant loft buildings in Chicago built by Jenney.

This eight-story, steel-frame building, boasting one of the finest examples of a terra-cotta clad façade, was commissioned by Mary Ludington Barnes for the American Book Company, which was owned by her husband, Charles Barnes. At the time, Chicago was a national center for the publishing industry, as demonstrated by this building and many others, particularly those on “Printing House Row,” and including the former Lakeside Press Building owned by Columbia College. The American Book Company built the building to house its offices, printing presses, packaging and shipping operations. Its frame was built to withstand the weight and vibrations of the presses, which were originally located on the 4th through 6th floors, and to accommodate the anticipated 8 story addition that was never built. Its status as a manufacturing facility determined its form as a loft building, with a practical and efficient interior that had few elegant original elements. Its location, between the Grand Central terminal at Harrison and Wells Streets and the Illinois Central station at Michigan Avenue and Roosevelt Road, made it ideal for the distribution of the company’s products.

The Ludington Building was owned by descendents of its original owners until 1960, although it was occupied by many different tenants, including the Pepsodent toothpaste company in the 1910s and ‘20s. In 1960 it was sold to Warshawsky and Company, an autoparts firm, for use as a storage facility. Columbia College Chicago purchased the building from Warshawsky in 1999. The Ludington currently houses the school’s Center for Book and Paper Arts, a portion of the Film and Video Department, the Glass Curtain Gallery and the Conaway Multicultural Center.

1104 Wabash Campus Building
1104 Wabash Campus Building

[edit] Music Department

1014-16 S. Michigan Avenue was built in 1912 by Christian A. Eckstorm. A red brick 4-story building with terra cotta detailing, this structure was erected by a developer as a speculative commercial building. During its first 30 years, it housed offices for a shingle distributor, a lumber company and an electrical parts manufacturer. In 1941, the building was rehabilitated for the Sherwood Conservatory of Music, founded in 1895 by William H. Sherwood, a piano virtuoso, teacher and composer.The school’s most famous alumna may be the comedienne Phyllis Diller, who was a piano student at the Sherwood School in the 1930s but did not graduate. The building was acquired by Columbia College Chicago in 1997 and now houses the school’s music department. The artistic, cultural and performance education tradition of this building, as it was adaptively reused since the 1940s, is continued today in the programs of the Music Department of Columbia College

[edit] Getz Theater

72 E. 11th Street was built in 1929 by Holabird & Root, architects of outstanding Chicago skyscrapers such as the Chicago Board of Trade, the Palmolive Building and the 333 N. Michigan Avenue Building. 72 East 11th Street, a six- story, limestone-clad Art Deco building, was originally owned by the Chicago Women’s Club and housed the organization’s meeting rooms, offices and a theater. Rich in history, it was the site for rallies in support of women’s voting rights, efforts on behalf of compulsory education laws and fund raising for scholarships at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a women’s dormitory at the University of Chicago. Subsequent owners and uses are unknown. Acquired by Columbia in 1980 as the school’s Theater Center, it currently houses a renovated 400-seat theater ,classrooms, and space for film and photography studios.

[edit] Dance Center

1306 S. Michigan Avenue was built in 1930 by architect Anker S. Graven. This sleek four-story Art Deco building, clad in limestone, was erected as the Paramount Publix Corporation as a film exchange, a venue for the presentation of films to the independent cinema operators throughout the Midwest who could rent them for exhibition at their theaters. The studio occupied the building up to about 1950, when it was taken over by the Equitable Life Assurance Company. In the 1970s it was known as the Seafarers International Union Building. The City of Chicago took possession of it in a tax sale in 1984, and used it for the Health Department’s Environmental Health Clinic. The building was acquired by Columbia College in 1999 for use as the school’s Dance Center. After extensive interior renovation and adaptation, the Dance Center opened its state-of-the-art educational and public performance facilities in the fall of 2000.

'68 , Student Performance Night, Dance Center main space, 1979
'68 , Student Performance Night, Dance Center main space, 1979

Prior to the relocation to Michigan Avenue, the Dance Center was located at 3750 North Sheridan Avenue in a former movie theater. The first floor housed the department office, lobby, dressing rooms, and the "main space", the primary dance studio. The second floor, accessed via a metal staircase in the back of the main space, held the ballet studio, the T'Chi room and music recording rooms.

Ballet room, 1979
Ballet room, 1979

There are more buildings such as the theater film annex, and the student dorms on Congress and State, Balbo and Plymouth, 8th and State, Congress and Wabash.

[edit] Los Angeles operations

The school also operates a bungalow in the CBS Studio Center the Studio City section of Los Angeles. The facility houses the college's Semester in L.A. program,[1] a five-week course for television and film majors. Additionally, Columbia rents space in Hollywood for alumni relations.

[edit] History

Columbia was founded in 1890 as a speech and teaching college for women. In the 1950s the college broadened its educational base to include television and other areas of communication and media arts. However, by 1962 Columbia had fewer than 200 students, a part-time faculty of 25, and no endowments, subsidies or visibility.

Mike Alexandroff became president in 1963, intent on fashioning a new approach to liberal arts education. He thought that many students had become disenchanted with the highly structured academic experience offered by most traditional universities. Columbia offered an affordable liberal education, and well as a faculty made up mostly of working professionals. He established an open-admissions policy so that any qualified high school graduate could have the opportunity to work toward achieving their educational and professional goals.

In 1964 the college moved into rented warehouse space at 540 N. Lake Shore Drive and by 1969 the college's enrollment had reached 700.

In 1974 Columbia won full accreditation as a four-year, undergraduate liberal arts school by the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges. By 1976 enrollment had passed the 2,000 mark and the college purchased its first real estate, the 175,000-square-foot (16,300 m²) building at 600 S. Michigan. At the time of Alexandroff's retirement in 1992, Columbia College served 6,791 students and owned or rented more than 643,000 square feet (59,700 m²) of instructional, performance and administrative space.

John B. Duff, former commissioner of the Chicago Public Library and former chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Regents of Higher Education, succeeded Mr. Alexandroff as the college's president. During his tenure the school continued to expand educational offerings and community outreach, as well as adding to the physical campus.

Duff retired in August 2000 and was succeeded by Warrick L. Carter, an educator, jazz composer and performing artist. Dr. Carter joined Columbia from The Walt Disney Company, where he spent four years as director of entertainment arts.

Previously he spent 12 years at Berklee College of Music in Boston, the world’s largest independent school of music, where he served as dean of faculty and then provost/vice president of academic affairs.

In May 2001, Columbia reorganized its academic departments and programs under four schools: Fine & Performing Arts, Graduate and Continuing Education, Liberal Arts & Sciences, and Media Arts.

As of Fall 2006, enrollment topped 11,000.[2] Currently, Columbia College Chicago owns more than 1,200,000 square feet (111,000 m²) in Chicago's South Loop, with plans for much more expansion over the upcoming years including a building on Michigan Avenue, two buildings on Wabash Avenue, a Media Production Center on State Street. A campus center is expected to be built in the next decade as well. The college offers on-campus housing to more than 2,000 students in four facilities. Two more facilities will house students in the next two years.

The College has a growing program of international exchanges, including links with Dublin Institute of Technology and the University of East London.

[edit] Campus Media

The Columbia Chronicle is the college's award-winning weekly newspaper. Frequency TV is the college's television station. WCRX (88.1 FM) is the college's radio station. Each of these outlets is run by students for class credit in their respective departments. However, students working at The Columbia Chronicle can get paid for their work.

The Columbia Chronicle newspaper has won numerous awards, the most recent in 2007-2008 as Best Weekly College Newspaper in the state, midwest and nation. visit www.columbiachronicle.com for more information

Broadcast journalism students produce two television news shows that are broadcast each week on Frequency TV. Newsbeat and Metro Minutes

Radio students work on WCRX producing live mixes by local DJs, their own imaging, PSAs, and carrying select UIC Flames basketball games

Also in 1998-1999 WCRX produced and broadcast Entertainment Primetime Weekly. A show that is produced in newsradio style. In fact, WCRX broadcasted the Emmy Awards.

Reservoir, the college's online student magazine, is produced weekly by students from across departments.

The students in the Journalism Department's Magazine Workshop class produce a magazine called Echo every semester.

AEMMP Records is the student-run record label. The staff develops an artist, produces an album, and markets the product throughout the course of an academic year.

[edit] Student Organizations

In addition to the academic programs offered at the college, students engage in many extracurricular activities. There are several major organizations on campus in addition to countless other growing organizations. All of these organizations are run by students. They include the Producer's Guild of Columbia (PGC), the Student Government Association, the Student Organization Council, the Student Alumni Association, the Student Athletics Association (Renegades), ReachOut, Senior Class, the Student Programming Board, the Asian Student Organization, the International Student Organization, the Columbia College Association of Black Journalists (CCABJ), Hispanic Journalists of Columbia (HJC) and Common Ground, formerly known as Q-Force, the on-campus GLBTQIA student group. Another notable organization is Latino Alliance, which just celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2007. These student organizations work together to provide leadership training and experience to Columbia students so they will be ready to take on leadership roles in their future places of employment.

[edit] Student Government Association (SGA)

Mission Statement

The Student Government Association of Columbia College Chicago represents the student voice and endeavors to construct a more perfect union. It serves as a liaison between students and the faculty and staff, and administration in order to ensure the welfare of our unique and diverse art and communication community. Through leadership and strong representation, it strives to provide students with opportunities to grow academically, artistically, professionally, and personally.

Structure

The SGA consists of an Executive Board, the Senate, and committees. The Executive Board, or E-Board, consists of the President, Executive Vice President, Vice President of Communications, Vice President of Finance, and the student representative to the College Board of Trustees.

The Senate consists of student representatives from each of the colleges academic departments, eight at senators "at-large" who represent the college community as a whole, two senators who represent the college's vast commuter population, one senators from the Student Organization Council, one senator from the Student Athletics Association, and two senators from the Residence Hall Association.

From those Senators there are six committees, each with a different focus. Each committee has a chair and a vice chair. The Executive Vice President is in charge of overseeing the committees and their work.

SGA Senate meetings are open to the public and are held on Tuesdays at 5pm during the academic year.

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] Notable faculty members

[edit] References

  1. ^ Columbia College Chicago : About Us
  2. ^ Columbia Enrollment Largest in College's History (2006). Columbia College Chicago.

Hy Roth famous Cartoonist, Illustrator and Author. Taught key-line and paste up for over 23 years and virtually built up the Art Department in Columbia's early days.

[edit] External links

[edit] Official sites

[edit] Campus media

[edit] Other

[edit] Footnotes

1 http://www.petersons.com/ugchannel/code/IDD.asp?orderLineNum=799005-10&reprjid=12&inunId=5885&typeVC=instvc&sponsor=1

v • d • e
Colleges and universities in the Chicago metropolitan area
Two year Colleges
Four year Colleges

Aurora • Benedictine • Calumet • Carthage • Catholic Theological Union • Chicago State • Chicago Theological Seminary • Columbia • Concordia • DePaul • Dominican • East-West • Elmhurst • Governors State • Hebrew Theological College • Illinois Institute of Technology • Illinois Institute of Art • Indiana Northwest • Judson • Kendall • Lake Forest • Lewis • Loyola • Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago • McCormick Theological Seminary • Meadville Lombard Theological School • Midwestern • Moody Bible Institute • National-Louis • Northeastern Illinois • Northern Illinois • North Central • North Park • Northwestern • Olivet Nazarene University • Purdue Calumet • Purdue North Central • Robert Morris College • Roosevelt • St. Augustine College • St. Francis • Saint Joseph's • Saint Mary of the Lake • St. Xavier • School of the Art Institute of Chicago • Shimer • Telshe Yeshiva • Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago • Trinity Christian • Trinity International • Chicago School of Psychology • University of Illinois at Chicago • University of Chicago • Valparaiso • Vandercook College of Music • Wheaton • Wisconsin-Parkside